Stories from Bihar, India
“All of a sudden we were surrounded by water. Me, my two sons aged 7 and 9 and my wife was holding on to bamboos, which were planted in the ground for our house. We had some rice with us. Our neighbours asked us for some food for their children and I took some rice and was wading through the water to give to my neighbours. Suddenly I heard noise that my wife and sons were loosing grip of the bamboo. When I turned back I saw the bamboo giving way and they struggling to survive. By the time I could return to catch hold my sons they slipped out of my hand and drowned”. This person who sits in front of the Mahavir temple in Patna keeps narrating the tragic details as to how he lost his sons in the fury unleashed by Kosi this year. He is inconsolable. The social scientists may have names Kosi as the ‘River of Sorrow’ but the sadness, sorrow and the devastation brought by the breach in Kosi embankment is unprecedented in all senses.
There are women in the embankments or in the camps who delivered children but have not had another set of clothes to change. Their condition is pathetic. With no food, no safe drinking water and hygienic condition deteriorating even the little resistance power they had is passing away. They are closer to sickness and suffering. If it is their state affairs what would be the state of newly born children is beyond human sense.
Karu Manjhi of Supaul keeps waiting on the banks where over 50 Dalit families have taken shelter. He is waiting for the chance to go quietly to check his ‘malik’s’ (meaning lord) house since his malik had told him that he should watch over his house and when he returns he would give him food. For the last one week Karu Manjhi has not eaten. But he is hopeful that once his malik comes, he would get food. This is the typical case of malik-mazdur or malik-kamia or the labourer in the normal times. This is in a sense a bonded labour system where Karu Manjhi is bonded to work for his Yadav malik. In the time of disaster too, this lower caste labourer is made to be a bonded or attached labour to his boss.
“We will reclaim our land and we will cultivate. We are asked to get out from here. But where will we go? This is our land, our home, and our life is tied to this soil”. While the state government keeps on appealing to the people to move out, the people are emotionally attached to their ancestral places and do not want to move. Even if they want to move they are not sure where they will go. No alternative arrangement is made for them by the state.
Sanichari Devi [sanichari means bad omen] of Supaul when confronted says that, ‘Hum Harijan hai. Hamey kaun khana dega. Hum to achut hain aur pankti mein khada honey nani dengey’. [We are lower castes. Who will give us food. We are untouchables and they do not allow us to stand in the line to receive]. When a volunteer from a social work organization confronted Sanichari Devi about the discrimination they suffer, she in the beginning said, ‘we cannot afford to move ahead in the queue for getting food. They would beat us up”. But Sanichari is not the only one person who is subjected to such dehumanizing existence. Meanwhile due to the depressing situation her husband left her and has run away leaving behind two daughters.
One of the aid agency member said, “those who have some money or have relatives settled somewhat well in Patna, Delhi or elsewhere they have moved to those places. But those who are left with no option are forced to remain wherever they are after the floods. They have nowhere to go. It appears that some of the camps would become totally dalit or musahar camps”. If this happens, these camps would not find any government support. For the government officials maintaining law and order, keeping track of records, ensuring smooth visit of VIPs to the area is the most important tasks these days.
There are others who are leaving for unknown destination from Patna Bhagalpur and Katihar railway stations. There is total sadness and hopelessness writ on their faces. You ask them as to where they are going. Their answer is ‘We do not know’. To the question what you would do wherever you get down from the train, their answer is the same, ‘we do not know’. Thus, life has come to a stand still to the people by the recent floods in Bihar.
Many lives could have been saved and greater relief could have been provided had the government acted under the emergency mode. Only when the army personnel moved into the area some damage control was done. Having worked in this area for a week 10 days now the army personnel are of the view that they are handicapped with too many things: they are not familiar with the area and the location of the village, now there is nothing left as a village in many places and hence they waste lots of time, the mechanized boats they have too can not go beyond 22 km, the local administration is not equipped to handle this disaster. If this is the army personnel’s point of view what would be the state of affairs of the local population.
As usual some of the big companies and politically opportunistic people are engaged in relief work and they bring some material and throw towards the people. Many of them reach only those areas where the roads are motorable. They are not bothered about nor trying to go to those areas where the people are marooned are forced to remain on embankments, housetops or on the trees.
It is also reported that many aid agencies have come to Bihar and some have moved to the affected areas and are busy with relief work. But they are least concerned about the exclusion and discrimination of communities and individuals that are going on in the rescue operations, relief camps and in the use of boat. Once the compensation package has to be determined there would be much more discrimination and deprivation practiced. This is not unusual in a society, which is fundamentally discriminating towards the dalits, women, children and the rural masses. What is stated here is not to deny or decry the good works done by aid agencies. But to caution ourselves that there are possibilities of discrimination and one should be sensitive to these and provide relief to all, especially to those who are denied these due to their social and economic and even physical tenets.
Flood is a recurring phenomenon in Bihar. So much so even the aid agencies have written off Bihar saying that we like to invest in development works but not in this annual relief and rehabilitation work. But since, what has happened to Bihar this year is not floods but a total destruction of about 5 districts, it is expected that all the agencies would show utmost sensitivity and political will to ensure that rescue and relief begin and continue till the time it is needed. But this is not to be done as if one is doing benevolence to the people but rescue and relief and later rehabilitation is the right of the people.
In this totally depressing scenario, there are also signs of hope and involvement. The taxi drivers of Patna Railway Station decided to provide relief to the affected people and were also ferrying people from station to their relatives’ houses. Another group of taxi drivers who are working for private companies decided to collect two days of their wages and buy ‘Parley’ biscuits and send to the areas affected by floods. Their logic was that biscuits do not get spoiled, it is paced well, it can remain for few days and children would benefit out of it.
The residents of Sri Krishna Mohall of Patna decide to provide dry food for 1,000 families affected. The families decided the items to be collected and brought to one central place. Women would come and do the packing and some company agreed to transport the relief material to be distributed for the affected people. These local initiatives confirm that everything is not lost in Bihar.
...
Dr. Prakash Louis SJ
Bihar Social Institute
Digha Ghat, Patna
Bihar 800011
8th September 2008
===========================
The above represents the first four pages of a 10-page report by Dr Prakash Louis SJ. The full report can be accessed here. It includes pictures and some interesting findings, such as the following:
"In this complex situation, the Christian community, especially its leadership has unwittingly played into the game plan of the Sangh Parirvar. The people who were affected in the recent violence in Orissa are surely Christians. But that is only their religious identity. But their social identity is that they are tribals and dalits. This fact has been overlooked or minimized. It is due to this only when a delegation met the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes both these constitutional bodies washed off their hand saying that this is not a tribal issue nor a dalit issue. Only the National Commission for Minority has agreed to send a fact finding team. Thus, the people affected lost the intervention of two national constitutional institutions, whose obligation is to unearth facts and demand from the government punishment to those who are found guilty and provide security and compensation to those who are affected by the violence."